Customer Reviews

The Last Battle of the Civil War: Palmetto Ranch (Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series, No. 4)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book for my Dad and he loved it! He said he had trouble putting it down. This is a great buy for a person who enjoys reading about Texas battles & history whether accurate or inaccurate.

Don't be fooled by the sophomoric cover art. This is an excellent, well-written, account of a well-known but little understood engagement. The bulk of the book is a very detailed, but readable, tactical description of the "battle," supported by a series of servicable maps. The book helps answer the question: "Why do people want to fight when it's all over?" It's a good story, well told, with commendable analysis of command decisions and options.

The Journal of South Texas, published by the South Texas Historical Association published a review written by Dr. Walter Pittman, of the University of West Alabama, in its Spring 2003 edition. In part Dr. Pittman writes: "Hunt's careful scholarship has disposed of two enduring legends. One is that the battle occurred because local forces had not yet learned of Appomattox. Hunt shows that the Confederates knew all about Lee's surrender and nevertheless fought with aggressiveness and spirit and were clearly superior to their foes. The other legend attributes the defeat to a failure of the Black 62nd USCT. Hunt proves that the inexperienced 62nd performed admirably under adverse conditions while the veteran 34th Indiana performed poorly.

"The Last Battle of the Civil War: Palmetto Ranch is a highly polished little gem of historical study... Jeffrey Hunt... through diligent research, [has] managed to resolve most of [the battle's] historical mysteries. Skillfully written, meticulously researched, balanced and unbiased, it is complimented with remarkably clear maps. It is a small book about a small battle but Hunt tells an exciting story and tells it with historical accuracy. It is well worth reading."

This account (of a battle that everyone's heard of but nobody knows much about) drags a bit in its beginning and ending sections, but its middle(the actual description of the battle) is a well-paced, crystal-clear description of the battle action of both sides. Good depiction of how individual leaders and their strengths and weaknesses influence military actions. The attempts to place the battle in a much larger historical context sometimes were a stretch, but the book overall is a great read for Civil War history buffs.